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Monday, January 14, 2013

ELAN TROTMAN SCORES BIG WITH TROPICALITY, STAR-STUDDED RELEASE SET FOR FEBRUARY 19

Tropicality is Barbados native Elan Trotman’s sixth solo album produced by both Trotman and guitarist Peter White, and it features 12 tracks recorded in Los Angeles, Boston, and Barbados. Trotman’s goal on this set was to bring the influence of the Caribbean to the masses - and he sure does succeed here. Trotman wrote or co-wrote seven of the collection’s nine original and selected a few covers, including the first single hitting radio – Stevie Wonder’s “Master Blaster”. With a refreshing and smooth sound, Tropicality boasts not only smooth jazz, but also some reggae (“Master Blaster (Jammin’), Bob Marley’s “Wait in Vain”), as well as Caribbean zouk (Danca Ku Mi (Dance With Me). After my first listen, I added all of the tracks to my Ipod and Itunes playlists.

Tropicality follows on the success of his 2011 release, Love And Sax, a Billboard Top 20 contemporary jazz album that spawned the single “Heaven In Your Eyes,” a duet that features keyboardist Brian Simpson, which reached #11 on Billboard’s jazz songs chart. Trotman is the three-time winner of the New England Urban Music Award as Best Jazz Male, the 2011 Barbados Music Award Instrumentalist of the Year, and was twice nominated for a Boston Music Award.